A cantilevered X-ray digital camera system generally comprises a platform which is mounted on a carriage. The carriage may be attached to an upright column by using a supporting arm or other structural members. The platform may be driven by or move along with the carriage along the upright column to move up and down. Meanwhile, the platform may be able to rotate around the supporting arm by a certain angle. X-ray photographing of various target locations on patients may be benefited by the capability of the platform to move up and down and to rotate about one or more certain axes.
The supporting arm in these x-ray imaging systems generally has a fixed length. With the systems where the supporting arm is longer, the platform is thus extended farther away from the upright column and offers better flexibility in the positioning the patients for imaging. Thus, it may be easier to find a better imaging position with respect to the patient with a longer supporting arm. However, longer supporting arms inevitably occupy larger space and often causes difficulty for hospital staff to manipulate the imaging instrument and/or adjust or fine tune the patient's position for better imaging. Longer supporting arms may also cause hospital personnel and the imaging instrument or other medical equipment to compete for the limited space. On the other hand, where the supporting arm is shorter, the platform is situated closer to the upright column so the overall footprint of the imaging system may be reduced. Nonetheless, after the hospital bed is placed onto the platform, adjustment is generally needed to get better imaging results. This is especially true when considering that the target locations on different patients, even for the same diagnostic purpose, are generally different such that fine adjustment may be necessary and may often be difficult for an imaging system with a short supporting arm.